Mark Gruenberg(2019-05-06). Trump Administration using the courts to kill healthcare for millions.peoplesworld.org NEW ORLEANS —The GOP couldn't kill the entire Affordable Care Act when they controlled Congress, though they tried at least 62 times. They can't completely kill it by dismantling it administratively piece by piece. So now the Trump administration wants the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, one of the most-conservative courts …

Democracy Now!(2019-05-06). Ex-Blackwater CEO Erik Prince Makes a Comeback Under Trump Selling Mercenary Armies Around the World.democracynow.org The House Intelligence Committee has sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Erik Prince, founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater. House Democrats are accusing Prince of lying to Congress during his November 2017 testimony before the Committee, when he described a meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian banker before Donald Trump's inauguration as a chance encounter. According to the Mueller report, the meeting was an attempt to establish a backchannel between the incoming Trump administration and Russia, and may have been arranged by the Trump team. The move is one of the latest actions placing…

Staff(2019-05-06). Sanders Calls for Breaking Up Big Agriculture Monopolies.truthdig.comOSAGE, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Sunday proposed a sweeping agriculture and rural investment plan to break up big agriculture monopolies and shift farm subsidies toward small family farmers. | "I think a farmer that produces the food we eat may be almost as important as some crook on Wall Street who destroys the economy," Sanders said during a campaign event in Osage, a town of fewer than 4,000 people. "Those of us who come from rural America have nothing to be ashamed about, and the time is long overdue for us to stand up and fight for our way of life." | Sanders' plan expa…

plenglish(2019-05-06). Laurentino Cortizo Is Panama's New President.plenglish.comPanama City, May 6 (Prensa Latina) Laurentino Cortizo, of the opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), will be Panama"s new president until 2024 after winning the Sunday elections in a tight political race over right-wing politician Romulo Roux.

Staff(2019-05-06). Republican Red-Baiting Is Going to Backfire.truthdig.com"Socialism," snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. The obedient crowd of Trumpistas snarled back in unison: So-sh'll-izz-ummm! | There you have the entire intellectual content of the GOP's 2020 re-election strategy under Generalissimo Trump: Slap Democrats with a scurrilous campaign branding them as Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin re-incarnate. | It's not just Trump hissing out the socialist label in a frantic McCarthyesque attempt to make it stick by mindless repetition, but also Republican lawmakers. Unfortunately for them, they're overplaying a weak hand and bumbling over their own ignoranc…

Ralph Nader(2019-05-06). Note To the Environmental Community.counterpunch.orgIn 2003, political strategist Frank Luntz wrote a confidential Republican Party memo on what he called "the environmental communications battle." In that memo, Luntz advised Republicans to change the words they used to meet their ends. "The scientific debate is closing but not yet closed," he wrote. "There is still a window of opportunity to More

Robert Koehler(2019-05-06). Nonviolence or Nonexistence.counterpunch.orgThe day before he died, Martin Luther King said these words at a packed church in Memphis: "Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. Now no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world, it is nonviolence or nonexistence. More

Anna Massoglia and Kaitlin Washburn(2019-05-04). Obama-tied operatives and Biden supporters launch $60 million 'dark money' group.nationofchange.orgA new "dark money" group is labeling itself the strategy center for Democrats in 2020. | The recently-launched Future Majority will spend up to $60 million to target voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio in the 2020 election, helping Democrats craft messaging that they are fighting for working people while countering conservative talking points, according to Politico. | The 501(c)(4) nonprofit, run by Democratic strategist Mark Riddle, is not required to disclose its donors. The g…

Jon Schwarz(2019-05-04). How to Dismantle the Absurd Profitability of Nuclear Weapons.theintercept.comThe Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists currently has its Doomsday Clock set to two minutes to midnight — the closest we've been to self-obliteration in nuclear history. | But nuclear weapons are more than just a terrifying threat to every living thing on earth. For decades, they've been a terrific way to make money. | A new report from PAX, a Dutch peace organization, both illuminates how profitable it can be for multinational corp…

Johnny E. Willliams(2019-05-04). Whiteness Explainer for Dummies.dissidentvoice.orgExamining whiteness is of utmost importance if Americans truly wish to live in a just and peaceful society. To realize this possibility, self-identified 'whites' — and their collaborators from among the racially oppressed — must reckon with their attachment to whiteness. Whiteness was the central concern of sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in his …

Jake Johnson(2019-05-03). Pointing to Disastrous History, Sanders Warns Against Military Action in Venezuela.theantimedia.com(CD) — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday condemned the Trump administration's threats to take military action in support of right-wing coup plotters in Venezuela. The Vermont senator joined the chorus of progressive members of Congress and advocacy groups warning that U.S. intervention would only worsen political turmoil in Venezuela—and could potentially spark an all-out civil war. "The Trump administration …